joy journey

mike mason, one of my favorite authors, wrote a simple book, or more like a personal devotional, about rediscovering god's gift of joy. 'champagne for the soul' is a 90 day joy journey. i started reading it while on a trip last week to tennessee. 2 page reading a day, and man! it fills you up, so to speak!! ;-)

my dear mom-in-law, ma, as i call her, would re-read the ones i had read, aloud, while i drove. as we started down the road to kentucky, to see her aunt evelyn, who i now call my aunt evelyn, ma would read, and we'd cry, say, "thank you father.." etc..

i so desire to express joy, but i first have to acquire, obtain, find, get, pursue, grab hold of....this precious, priceless gift. joy. so cheers!! to champagne for our souls, true joy!

(here's a 'day' that i loved reading; hehehe, i skipped around a bit! it's day 25! soooo good~and i may add my 'thoughts' in parenthesis's) oh! and the day i read this, was the day that we all went to the tennessee aquarium; the butterfly display, was a beautiful inside temp. controlled room, with butterflies EVERYWHERE! and they were gorgeous! and i kept looking for them, and looking for them, and it never got old, or boring! joy came...... indeedy it did!

STANDING OVATION

let them sacrifice thank offerings and tell of his works with songs of joy. PSALM 107:22

when it it a sacrifice to offer thanks? when i don't feel like it. this marks the difference between thanksgiving and gratitude. gratitude is an attitude of heart, whereas thanksgiving is an act. if the act of giving thanks is not performed, gratitude will not develop.

years ago, realizing i needed to develop gratitude, i began the practice of saying thanks to god for five things every night before bed. i still do this whenever i feel the least bit low. looking for reasons to be thankful, instead of focusing on worries or fears, is like putting on a new pair of glasses. life looks different through the lens of thanks. (i love that!!!!)

if you are so low that you have only one prayer to offer, let it be a prayer of thanks. it's the easiest way to pray and often the most powerful. moreover there's an intimate connection between thanksgiving and joy. in some circumstances thanksgiving, like forgiveness, is both the quickest and the only route to joy. prayers of thanks, offered from the heart, always draw one closer to the light and therefore to the fire of joy. (woop!!)

giving thanks is a way of gathering joy. imagine yourself in a meadow chasing butterflies with a net. though the meadow is full of spiders, you don't notice these; neither are you concerned with weeds or scraps of letter. you aren't collecting spiders or weeds or litter. you're collecting butterflies, and your sole focus is on capturing those brightly colored flecks of beauty.

joy requires single-mindedness. the world is full of reasons to be sad or distressed, but beauty and goodness also abound. which to look at? what you see is what you get. (man! that speaks!!)

now imagine yourself in a meadow gathering wildflowers-violets, let's say. there are other flowers in the meadow, but you have eyes only for the purple violets. when you're finished, do you have a fistful of stones or twigs or grasses? no, you have a bouquet of violets.

every day joy waits to be gathered. will you take the trouble to fine it, cherish it, be grateful? joy is like a stranger standing on you doorstep, and gratitude is the host who opens the door and says, "do come in and make yourself at home." without gratitude, joy stands forever just outside the heart, making gestures that go unnoticed. (i had to re-read that line, over and over..... )

a joyful experience isn't really ours until we call it to mind and give thanks for it. how many such experiences are lost on us every day because, living without reflection, we never take time to pray them through our door? (wowza!!)

is god less good to us on our bad days? no, he doesn't change. he's always awesome and loving. doesn't he deserve for for us to be happy? isn't he worth celebrating? he tips the sky like a goblet of light over our heads; he dresses the continents in the satiny robes of the seas. (beauty, and i'm tearing up!) if he'd done nothing else, wouldn't these feats alone be worth a continuous clap of joy?

joy glorifies god. when we fell good, god looks good. don't be half-hearted for god; give him a standing ovation every day. it's what he's waiting for. it's what you're waiting for too. your whole being waits to erupt into thunderous and unending praise. you won't be happy until you do. you won't be happy until your first waking thought is of the glory of being alive. you won't be happy until like a little child you can hardly wait to get out of bed and tiptoe downstairs to see what magic awaits you. you won't be happy until you forget your problems long enough to look up to heaven and be stunned into heartfelt thanks for a life overflowing with goodness. (amen!)

(pg. 49-50, champagne for the the soul; rediscovering god's gift of joy by mike mason)